Monthly Archives: April 2018

Aaron Heineman, who is deaf and is a Republican, filedADA discrimination lawsuit against the Utah RepublicanParty. He said he was promised an interpreter duringthe 2016 Caucus and the Convention, but none was given him.

The Forbes magazine ran a story on hotels inRome. It said that Hassler Roma is stillthe best in Rome. That hotel is owned andoperated by deaf Roberto Wirth, and has beenin business for 135 years, handed downthrough the Wirth generations, endingwith Roberto and his hearing brother.Roberto eventually bought out hisbrother and has full ownership.

— remote video interpreters; love or hate

Deaf people, especially those that live inbig cities and large metro areas, hateremote video interpreters. They preferface-to-face live interpreters. Therewas a story about deaf people that livein Utah rural areas – that love remotevideo interpreters. There are nolive interpreters around and so, theyfeel blessed to have these videointerpreting opportunities.

There is a famous saying – One man’s trashis another man’s treasure. A new deaf company –reFort, in Washington, DC, wishes to salvageand refurbish departing Gallaudet students’spring trash into treasure for resale forupcoming fall students in the fall. A pictureis at:

Marlee Matlin plays as FBI agent in the “Quantico”TV series. Critics have said this TV series isone of the worst ever! It is not the fault ofMarlee, but of the script writers that couldnot do a good job of making it a good program.

— thrown out because of deafness, filing a lawsuit

Kayla Finacchiaro, who is deaf, was kicked out of theNewbury College (Massachusetts) softball team. Shehas filed a lawsuit, accusing the coach of throwingher out because of her deafness. Hard to believe?Yes!

A deaf clerk in a supermarket was assaultedby an angry hearing person, who was askingfor assistance, thinking the request wasignored. This is not the first time. Deafpeople have been assaulted for using ASL,thinking gesturing was disrespectful.Police officers have confronted deafpeople for this reason. Years ago in DC,an angry George Washington Universitystudent, selling donuts to raise funds,yelled at DeafDigest editor who was walkingby. The student, thinking he was being ignored,ran after the editor. Fortunately, the fellowstudents restrained him! A picture is at:

Sara Kovaliov, a 16-year old deaf Israeli girl, won thesilver medal at the Jiu Jitsu Under-18 World Championship.At the airport in Abu Dhabi, a security guard askedher to follow him to a room. She was worried thatit was a national security issue. She was wrong.The security people were shocked that a deaf girlwould win a world championship silver medal againsthearing competitors. They gave her an expensivewatch as a gift!

— considered as trouble-maker parents

Hearing parents that seek additional mainstreamedclassroom support for their deaf children areconsidered as trouble-makers! This was theopinion of some weary teachers and schooladministrators.

Clarence Barber, a deaf man from Dawson City, Yukon (Canada),is a member of a native tribe (Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation).He, however, grew up knowing nothing about his own culturebecause no one was able to communicate with him. Finallygetting an interpreter, he went to a tribe cultural eventand learned all he could about his own culture. He said:

I had no idea about my culture, I had no idea about Nativethings; they were so happy to be able to chat with me

The Social Innovation Lab is part of the huge JohnsHopkins University (Baltimore, MD) medical complex,one of the biggest in the world. This lab encouragesinventions and innovations that will help improvemedical matters and issues. One such inventionis the see-through surgical mask. It won a$25,000 grant from the lab.

— Amazon software engineer is deaf-blind

Michael Forzano is deaf-blind. It did not stop himfrom getting a job with Amazon as softwareengineer. When applying for that job, henever told Amazon that he was deaf-blind.He told Amazon that he has to use his ownlaptop to show them the code he was ableto write, instead of using the whiteboard.Just almost immediately he was hired.He functions as a hearing person, not knowingsign language and so, no need for adeaf-blind interpreter.